philosophy_of_megatenfandomcom-20200216-history
Comparative mythology
Comparative mythology is the comparison of myths from different cultures in an attempt to identify shared themes and characteristics. Comparative mythology has served a variety of academic purposes. For example, scholars have used the relationships between different myths to trace the development of religions and cultures, to propose common origins for myths from different cultures, and to support various psychological theories. The psychological aspects relating to seeing what trends tend to be omnipresent within various myths even if developed independently. Reflecting potentially being a universal pattern of thought. Comparative mythology is a slightly different subject from comparative religion, focusing more on the stories, rather than the cultural practices as a whole. Comparative mythology which emphasizes the similarities between myths is contrasted against particularist mythology which emphasizes the differences. While some people might lean more towards emphasizing one or the other, most studies of mythology will to some degree work in both realms. Comparative approaches to mythology held great popularity among eighteenth- and nineteenth-century scholars. Many of these scholars believed that all myths showed signs of having evolved from a single myth or mythical theme. This was reflecting a trend of universalist views of cultures and religions of the time. In modern day though, hardline comparativists tend to be more rare, with emphasis placed more on a balance between simialrity and difference. Comparative mythology is of course a large aspect of megaten games. This being because the world they are depicting is one in which every religion has some degree of truth, and in many ways they overlap and will absorb others into them. And so figures with similar mythological trends will be subsumed into the same universal struggles as their iteration of it meets the bigger picture. I.E. the struggle between order and chaos, and where various mythological figures fall on that front. With the figures subsumed into the larger struggle as the myths influence eachother, while still maintaining their old positions. It also focuses on the psychological aspect of this, with what the various figures represented to their respective cultures, and how this reflects larger psychological trends. Approaches Comparative mythologists come from various fields, including folklore, anthropology, history, linguistics, and religious studies, and they have used a variety of methods to compare myths. These are some important approaches to comparative mythology. Linguistic. Some scholars look at the linguistic relationships between the myths of different cultures. For example, the similarities between the names of gods in different cultures. One particularly successful example of this approach is the study of Indo-European mythology. Scholars have found striking similarities between the mythological and religious terms used in different cultures of Europe and India. For example, the Greek sky-god Zeus Pater, the Roman sky-god Jupiter, and the Indian (Vedic) sky-god Dyauṣ Pitṛ have linguistically identical names. This suggests that the Greeks, Romans, and Indians originated from a common ancestral culture, and that the names Zeus, Jupiter, Dyaus and the Germanic Tiu emerged from an older name referring to the sky father. Megaten hints at this in games too. While different gods have different identities as the cultures are split, there are implications that many of them ultimately were derived from a smaller group before spreading, and so there were elements of the struggles that were being undergone that were tied together even before in late history when the cultures became more aware of eachother. Some of the associations they draw together are more sketchy than others though, with some being deliberately riding off of fictitious associations like the jewish japanese common ancestor theory. Structural. Some scholars look for underlying structures shared by different myths. The folklorist Vladimir Propp proposed that many Russian fairy tales have a common plot structure, in which certain events happen in a predictable order. In contrast, the anthropologist Claude Lévi-Strauss examined the structure of a myth in terms of the abstract relationships between its elements, rather than their order in the plot. In particular, Lévi-Strauss believed that the elements of a myth could be organized into binary oppositions (raw vs. cooked, nature vs. culture, etc.). He thought that the myth's purpose was to "mediate" these oppositions, thereby resolving basic tensions or contradictions found in human life or culture. The element of sorting binary oppositions is of course a view heavily taken by megaten. Since there are many binary associations that are associated with the law and chaos figures that reflect various aspects. Such as passion / stoicism, war / peace, etc. And different figures exist to differentiate those aspects, as well as the sides to reflect an overall trend. And neutral of course exists in part presented as a deconstruction of some of those binaries. So the mythological figures as differentiation of binaries is a huge element of their nature. Psychological. Some scholars propose that myths from different cultures reveal the same, or similar, psychological forces at work in those cultures. For instance, Jungians have identified images, themes, and patterns that appear in the myths of many different cultures. They believe that these similarities result from archetypes present in the unconscious levels of every person's mind. The games of course use this as a primary basis, with the series itself being heavily based on jung, interpreting the mythological aspects heavily through a psychological lens. More information about that on the jung page. Historical. Another focus is given on that the historical developments of myths, as well as the trends taken can be used to reflect understandings of history, and the perspectives of people of the times, even leading to today. The historian's lens is useful for understanding how figures would be seen at these times, and by extension drawing parallels or differences between different cultures. Megaten of course implies that cultures do diverge as well, which is why law is seen as western themed and chaos as eastern themed. Phylogenetical. It is speculated that like genes, myths evolve by a process of descent with modification. The striking parallels between biological and mythological evolution allow the use of computational statistics to infer evolutionary relatedness and to build the most likely phylogenetic tree for a mythological family. The proto version of the myth could in theory be statistically reconstructed via comparison of related myths. Mythological phylogenies also are a potentially powerful way to test hypotheses about cross-cultural relationships among folktales. In structuralism-influenced studies of mythology, a mytheme is a fundamental generic unit of narrative structure (typically involving a relationship between a character, an event, and a theme) from which myths are thought to be constructed — a minimal unit that is always found shared with other, related mythemes and reassembled in various ways ("bundled") or linked in more complicated relationships. For example, the myths of Adonis and Osiris share several elements, leading some scholars to conclude that they share a source, i.e. images passed down in cultures or from one to another, being ascribed new interpretations of the action depicted, as well as new names in various readings of icons. Note that the focus on archetypes emphasizes similar mythological results that could happen independently whereas mythemes emphasizes evolution from earlier myths. Both aspects can be at play however. Specific parallels Comparative mythology has uncovered a number of parallels between the myths of different cultures, including some very widespread recurring themes and plot elements. Here are some off the most relevant examples. Belief A common motif in many ancient religions is the idea that the gods in some way require or need worship or sacrifices in order to be empowered. While this is a common trope in modern media revolving around gods, often as a metaphor for them being taken as ideas, and is present in megaten as well, various religious have instances of it in the past to varying degrees. Notably a distinguishing fact of monotheism being that the god requires nothing and cannot be harmed by anything. Though even monotheism implies that while not god, angels and demons are often given power in relation to attention they are shown. Not every polytheism had this format, but there were varying degrees of reasons given for why the gods needed belief and sacrifices in particular. And polytheism often implicated that they at least suffer some form of consequence, if not die from the absence of these. For instance, many religions took the sacrifices of food given them as actual sustenance the god might have needed to consume for strength. A Greek myth/folktale likely written in Christian times by Plutarch tells of the death of the god Pan when people start thinking of him as only a made-up story rather than venerating him. This idea existed in the roman syncretism a bit although more explicitly. Christians also told this story about the irish gods. Saying that the Tuatha de Danann, shriveled into the "Little People" (faeries) from lack of offerings and affection after they were overthrown by the Milesians. The epic of gilgamesh describes the gods crowding around the few remaining sacrifices at a time after most of humanity was wiped out, showing an important need for them, and humans were described as being created to help sustain and feed the gods. It is a more common motif in animistic religions, since in these spirits and gods will often be interpreted as tied to tangible objects, and as such react to how those objects are used. This animism also implies that gods who embody certain objects can be harmed based on how said objects are treated. Veneration of worthy individuals Religions tend to not just have an explicit category of gods, with mortals never deserving mention. In most religions, especially polytheistic ones there is room for exemplary individuals to be raised to a realm worhy of veneration. In taoism and shinto and buddhism they can become gods outright. In the greek hero cults, heroes were prayed to, and were seen as between humans and gods, though in practice this often blurred the line to gods. Many eastern religions have ancestor worship, which holds that your ancestors become small protective spirits relevant to your family. Even monotheistic religions have something similar, in that catholic saints are often treated similar to gods. Though the connotations are much different. So megaten depicting major historical figures alongside demons as spiritual beings with power to interact with the world has a lot of global religious precedent. Flood myth Cultures around the world tell stories about a great flood. In many cases, the flood leaves only one survivor or group of survivors. For example, both the Babylonian Epic of Gilgamesh and the Hebrew Bible tell of a global flood that wiped out humanity and of a man who saved the Earth's species by taking them aboard a boat. Similar stories of a single flood survivor appear in Hindu mythology as well as Greek, Norse mythology and Aztec mythology. Megaten does not reference floods specifically that often, but does subsume the associations with noah into ideas of cycles of the world in general. The creative sacrifice Many cultures have stories about divine figures whose death creates an essential part of reality. These myths seem especially common among cultures that grow crops, particularly tubers. One such myth from the Wemale people of Seram Island, Indonesia, tells of a miraculously-conceived girl named Hainuwele, whose murdered corpse sprouts into the people's staple food crops. The Chinese myth of Pangu, the Indian Vedic myth of Purusha, and the Norse myth of Ymir all tell of a cosmic giant who is killed to create the world. In-game, kagutsuchi in nocturne takes this role, which relates to the figure's role as a creative death in mythology as well. The dying god. Many myths feature a god who dies and often returns to life. Such myths are particularly common in Near Eastern mythologies. The anthropologist Sir James Frazer compared these "dying god" myths in his multi-volume work The Golden Bough. The Egyptian god Osiris and the Mesopotamian god Tammuz are examples of the "dying god", while the Greek myths of Adonis (though a mortal) has often been compared to Osiris and the myth of Dionysos also features death and rebirth. Some scholars have noted similarities between polytheistic stories of "dying gods" and the Christian story of Jesus of Nazareth. The returl to life often symbolizes an important victory over some kind of opposition. The concept of a god's resurrection is even in the title of megaten games in general, with megami tensei referring to metampsychosis of a godess, which presumes the concept of rebirth. Many games either implicitly or explicitly tie this idea of rebirth to something important, such as IV talking about the rebirth of tokyo itself, in the form of a goddess. Likewise, law hero in SMTI dies as a human to be resurrected as the messiah. Which while he is not called a god as messiah is a supernatural figure. And the story of course stems from a book about the rebirth of izanami. The structure of hero stories. A number of scholars have suggested that hero stories from various cultures have the same underlying structure. Other scholars, including FitzRoy Somerset, 4th Baron Raglan and, more recently, Joseph Campbell, have also suggested that hero stories share a common structure. Some comparative mythologists look for similarities only among hero stories within a specific geographical or ethnic range. For example, the Austrian scholar Johann Georg van Hahn tried to identify a common structure underlying "Aryan" hero stories. Others, such as Campbell, propose theories about hero stories in general. According to Campbell's "monomyth" hypothesis, hero stories from around the world share a common plot structure. In narratology and comparative mythology, the monomyth, or the hero's journey, is the common template of a broad category of tales that involve a hero who goes on an adventure, generally with the shift changing from the mundane to the supernatural, and in a decisive crisis wins a victory, and then comes home changed or transformed, often with benefits from this victory carrying over to the people themselves. Although this plot structure is so common in fiction that explicit reference to it as an idea seems redundant, megaten of course generally has plots that follow this structure. Axis mundi. Many mythologies mention a place that sits at the center of the world and acts as a point of contact between different levels of the universe. This "axis mundi" is often marked by a sacred tree or other mythical object. For example, many myths describe a great tree or pillar joining heaven, earth, and the underworld. Vedic India, ancient China, and the ancient Germans all had myths featuring a "Cosmic Tree" whose branches reach heaven and whose roots reach hell. The idea of mount meru in vedic culture was also related. Megaten although it tends to not depict this as a literal place often references the idea of a world tree, associating it with the kabbalic tree of life due to the abrahamic nature of the mainline focus. Notably, while various religious symbols are utilized exclusively by certain sides, kabbalic imagery is seen utilized by both, to reflect the universal nature of the world tree and that everything takes place within it. This also ties to how jung considered it one of the four primary archetypes alongside the god and devil analogues, and eros as motivation. Titanomachy Many cultures have a creation myth in which a group of younger, more civilized gods who represent the order of civilization conquers and/or struggles against a group of older gods who represent the forces of chaos (often also the forces of nature). In Hindu mythology, the younger devas (gods) battle the older asuras (demons), though both are born from the same father, Kashyap, the grandson of Brahma. In the Greek myth of the Titanomachy, the Olympian gods defeat the Titans, an older and more primitive divine race, and establish cosmic order. Similarly, the Celtic gods of life and light struggle against the Fomorians, ancient gods of death and darkness. Interestingly, while monotheistic religions have a highly different paradigm, they often still retain an element of this struggle between order and chaos, the abrahamic religions tend to invert it. While in polytheistic religions, the current world is seen as the result of a long chaotic struggle, abrahamic religions invert it by saying that the original state was one of peace and order. And that it was the chaotic fallen angels who rebelled against order, rather than in polytheistic religions who say that orderly gods rebelled against chaos. In either way of telling the story, the forces of chaos are ultimately defeated and to some degree banished. Megaten of course uses this as a basis for its world, interestingly finding a way to combine it. (And even has a spell in some games called titanomachia). In SMTI yhvh and zeus are conflated, and so the stories of the gods of civilization triumphing over the gods of nature is told, but likewise conflated with the triumph of monotheism and abrahamic religion over earlier polytheistic religions. So yhvh is depicted as a god who helped establish order, but in the process became a monotheistic god. It tends to depict the inversion of this, where chaos is a deviation from order as a later occurrence. With Lucifer rebelling from the new paradigm. So chaos is still associated with the earlier states of nature. While some other aspects of comparative mythology may be only more indirectly referenced, this aspect, and its association with the law and chaos sides is clearly approached from an explicit angle. With the tying of the banishment of the titans to fallen angels being established early on. Likewise, it lumps together the idea of the christian demonization of foreign gods to this. Associating it with another element of seeming banishment of things seen as archaic and disorderly. Note here that megaten's version, mostly in later games does veer slightly away from a binary. In SMTI, there is only real indication of two main deity sides, with many polytheistic gods pumped in with yhvh, but in many later games many of these are differentiated from him, and deity race is moved to neutral. With law still retaining elements of other gods, but this often being displayed in favor of an emphasis on that it moved even more to order than many of these polytheistic gods. So the characterization shifted over time. Note that even in the later games this distinction is subtle, and neutral gods are often not focused on in the story, in favor of order versus chaos. This being because while many of the polytheistic gods represent the order of civilization, the thematic elements associated with law are being presented as something a step further than that. The deus otiosis Many cultures believe in a celestial supreme being who has cut off contact with humanity. Historian Mircea Eliade calls this supreme being a deus otiosus (an "idle god"), although this term is also used more broadly, to refer to any god who doesn't interact regularly with humans. In many myths, the Supreme Being withdraws into the heavens after the creation of the world. Baluba mythology features such a story, in which the supreme god withdraws from the earth, leaving man to search for him. Similarly, the mythology of the Hereros tells of a sky god who has abandoned mankind to lesser divinities. In the mythologies of highly complex cultures, the supreme being tends to disappear completely, replaced by a strongly polytheistic belief system. In megaten this is of course directly equated to yhvh, with it even being a plot point in iva that he is accused of being remote, and taking no direct actions in the world. It is also conflated with the idea of the problem of evil in-game, calling into question god's benevolence for allowing certain suffering. To a different extent, mem aleph could be seen as this for chaos, since mem aleph is not depicted as being active in or taking many actions in the world per say, merely giving birth to demons, and then staying back. In the end of SJ even dissolving into the world, and so tying to the idea of a dying god. Mythic time Mythic time refers to the fact that many myths that happen in religions were things that weren't quite seen as taking place necessarily in linear time, but in a kind of special abstract time of their own. When asking questions like when did hod kill Baldr, oftentimes these events were not seen as taking place at a time that cleanly connects to our own flow of time, but in an ambiguous time that makes them in essence timeless. This is especially the case when detailing events that were seen as cyclical in nature, with rituals done in the present seen as partaking in the mythical time. This ties to the fact that to many ancient cultures time was not seen as linear in the way we understand it now, but a reflection of a cyclical pattern. One major thing that delineated judaism from many of the cultures surrounding it was that yahweh talking to moses was seen as something that happened in literal time in the very recent past, rather than in an abstract ancient mythical time unconnected to ordinary circumstances. Note that in many cultures the concept of mythical time was not an explicit concept used by them, but just a vague highlighting of the transcendent nature of the gods, and them existing separate from everyday ordinary conceptions of being. The depiction of myths as taking place in a kind of timeless realm was not always self consciously a thing that people held as an explicit doctrine, but was a form of way that myths were written to make them seem eternal in relevancy, and to tie to the fact that humans can tap into this mythical time via rituals. While many cultures used mythical time when writing myths not all of them explicitly viewed gods as literally existing in their own realm of time. Megaten explicitly highlights mythic time in the games. Many of the gods talk about things they have done, or their myth as literal events, but many of these events are depicted as taking place at an ambiguous time that is depicted as separate from ordinary time. This is explicitly stated to be separate from linear time in that the expanse is described as a place where past and future blur together. With what happens in the human world being in some sense an emanation of these timeless properties. Often one that has a semi cyclical element to it in that you are warned that even defeating enemies doesn't end the potential for either them or someone like them to return in their place. Founding myths. Many cultures have myths describing the origin of their customs, rituals, and identity. In fact, ancient and traditional societies have often justified their customs by claiming that their gods or mythical heroes established those customs. For example, according to the myths of the Australian Karadjeri, the mythical Bagadjimbiri brothers established all of the Karadjeri's customs. These myths may also be used to justify codes of ethics, giving them a divine origin. Megatn of course references gods laying down standards, as well as being the founding gods of a people.